ElBaradei calls on Syria to allow more nuclear inspections (Roundup)

Vienna - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei called on Syria Thursday to allow further inspections of the country's alleged nuclear programme. In his statement before the IAEA board of governors, ElBaradei also urged Iran to clarify open questions on past studies that were possibly related to nuclear weapons development. Last week, Syria's top nuclear official Ibrahim Othman indicated further visits to the alleged reactor site at al-Kibar, which was bombed by Israel last year, were unlikely, and that other sites could not be shown to IAEA inspectors as they were military installations. Asking for 'maximum transparency' from Syria, ElBaradei said his agency was capable of developing modalities to protect military secrets, while letting his inspectors carry out their work. But the IAEA chief also said it was 'regrettable, and indeed baffling' that his agency had not been able to buy any commercial satellite images of al-Kibar taken by after the attack in September 2007, but before the site was landscaped by Syria soon afterwards. A diplomat said that while one member state had provided low-resolution imagery, the pictures taken by private companies would have shown more details. One or more governments might have bought up all commercial images taken by companies in eight countries, the diplomat suggested. IAEA inspectors first visited al-Kibar in June, after having received intelligence information from the US indicating Syria was in the process of secretly building a reactor, possibly with North Korean help. ElBaradei on Thursday summed up his report on Syria from last week by saying that 'while it cannot be excluded that the building in question was intended for non-nuclear use, the features of the building ... are similar to what may be found in connection with a reactor site.' Syria has stated that al-Kibar was a conventional military site and that uranium particles found there by IAEA inspectors must have originated from munitions used by the Israeli air force to destroy the installation. The head of the IAEA also called on Israel to provide information in order to verify Syria's claim. Regarding Iran, ElBaradei said the country's leaders should clarify to what extent the documents on alleged nuclear weapons work which the IAEA received from member states were correct. Iran has stated that the allegations were based on forged documents, and that some of the research projects on missiles and high explosives were not related to nuclear applications. The IAEA has not been able to make progress on this issue since March.